Thailand Journal 2011 #19

After over 30 straight hours of travel, we have arrived safely back in Walla Walla (though a few team members are still traveling on their own around Thailand). Tired, but with a good feeling at having completed another successful trip. All my trips and teams are good, but this trip and team were exceptional. To have 12 people work, play, eat, and live in a foreign culture together for over two weeks can be a challenge on many levels. But this team worked, played, ate, and lived together remarkably well and made the organization and logistics much easier than it would have been otherwise.

Admittedly, the working conditions can be challenging at times. But this team kept each other going – with jokes, with song, with energy, and with encouragement. They kept each other built up when discouragement set in – especially on the farm where the weather was hot, the work was exhausting, and the project overwhelming at times. And the relationship this group of students has with God is inspiring. They relied on God throughout – for energy, for good spirits, for funds to complete the mission, for healing when one of the team had an injury, for safety, and for the ability to do their best to help those they came in contact with. Every parent and every member of WWU would have been proud of this group.

Each year I’m asked what difference can we make in just a couple weeks. Is it worth all the effort? I always say a resounding “YES.” If you saw the joy in the children’s faces when they greet the team members who come to help them with their English each day, you’d say “YES.” If you saw the tears that Nang, the woman who owns the farm, shed when we left her, you’d say “YES.” If you saw the comments the team members made as they reflected on their experiences, you’d say “YES.” There were individual and collective financial hurdles to overcome, there were logistical challenges to be worked through, and other obstacles – no undertaking of this type is without those issues, but when you see God working them out its exciting and inspiring and worth every minute of effort. I am blessed and energized to have worked with this team and hope they will all be back for the 10-year reunion I’m planning for 2014.

Links to all 19 daily blogs and 2848 photos: http://blessingsfrompedrito.blogspot.com/ and http://www.wallawalla.edu/campus-life/spiritual-life/gallery/thailand_cultural_and_mission_trip_2011.